Follow-up on Tulare County librarian Brenda Biesterfeld from the Visalia Times, informing us that records for both the fired librarian and the library from which she was fired can now be seen on-line. Here’s the letter from the attorneys representing the library(a pdf file).
To download the personnel file and supervisor drop file regarding former Tulare County librarian Brenda Biesterfeld, go to this website, LC.org.
Oh, and that LC’s not for Library of Congress, it’s for Liberty Counsel whose motto is “Restoring the Culture one Case at a Time by Advancing Religious Freedom, the Sanctity of Human Life and the Traditional Family”.
What a scramble
They fired the woman on the 6th, after performance reviews said she was performing well and then started sending emails on the 7th complaining about her performance.
The incidents in these post-termination emails are trivial: the cash drawer was not balanced, multiple lost items from one patron were listed on one receipt, the book drop had not been emptied by the time the doors opened for the public, and books had not been shelved. These are all normal occurrences in a library as staff members have multiple duties and only a limited number of hours in the workday.
I’ve never seen such backside covering in my life. I am glad she retained counsel. It is obvious to me that she was fired because she ignored her supervisor’s idiotic insistence that she not report a crime.
I think it is wonderful that there is a group that is: “Restoring the Culture one Case at a Time by Advancing Religious Freedom, the Sanctity of Human Life and the Traditional Family.” (The odd capitalization here perplexes me as well. Does anyone not own a Chicago Manual of Style anymore?)
I think I’ll send them a check. Thanks for the link to this fine organization.
reserve judgement
Watch out mdoneil, you might be broke by the time you finish donating to all the fine organizations.
I am already 🙂
Yes and the only problem with sending them twenty bucks is that I get on their mailing lists forever.
The truth does lie somewhere in the middle of the several versions of the story. Heck we finally know for certain she is not a librarian as almost every newspaper article has called her.
My guess is she annoyed the supervisor, the supervisor fired her because she called the cops – because at the time that seemed like a good reason (but upon reflection it was not) and that the scramble to cover their tracks they made these absurd entries.
The pot was probably simmering and they should have been timelier in their emails and notifications to her so as to be able to end her probationary employment correctly.
But they blew that chance and now it looks like they fired her for dropping a dime on a child pornographer, which is indeed commendable (not the firing, the calling the cops on the criminal). So there will be any number of letters back and forth between lawyers – most at taxpayer expense; then a check for a year’s wage for a library assistant will most probably be proffered.
Of course the supervisors and director will not have improved their employee evaluation policies and timeliness so eventually someone else will get canned and complain and get a few thousand as well. The Peter Principle at its finest